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Among the recipients of Alavi's largesse is the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, which was established by the Revolutionary Guards Corps during the Iran-Iraq war to train engineers for Iran's armaments industry and its nuclear program.

Since 1987, Alavi has distributed more than $400,000 to a variety of state-run organizations in Iran, including Sharif University, the University of Tehran, Islamic Azad University of Karaj, and a number of medical colleges. U.S. government investigators believe that some of this money was used to purchase gas chromatography and other equipment in the United States which may have been used for Iran's chemical weapons programs. The Foundation also sent money to Iran's Red Crescent society, the organization listed as the final end-user of the deadly botulinum toxins Mohammad Mahalatti attempted to purchase in 1993.

Perhaps one of Alavi's most curious foreign donations is a regular $60,000 annual contribution to the Islamic Education Academy in Cologne, Germany. This money has ostensibly gone to fmance an encyclopedia of Islamic thought, but only a scant two volumes of the work have appeared.

Prof. Abduljavad Fallaturi heads the Cologne academy, and is a well-known Islamic scholar. He has long been associated with the Center for Islamic Studies at the University of Cologne, and when recently asked about his connection to Mostazafan-New York, he initially denied any connection to the Foundation. But Fallaturi later changed his story. After subsequent questioning, he claimed he had received $2,000 from the Foundation.

But later, after Fallaturi had called New York and been told that the payments were a matter of public record, he acknowledged he had received more than $200,000 from Mohammad Pirayendeh in Tehran, who sits on the board of directors of Mostazafan-New York, through the Dresder Bank. Pirayendeh is among those suspected by U.S. law enforcement officials of involvement in arms procurement schemes on behalf of the Islamic Republic.

But the tax records show that Fallaturi received more than $485,000 from Alavi/Mostazafan from 1985-1991. While no explanation is given how this money was used, German intelligence officials acknowledge that their country has become the center for Iran's intelligence and technology procurement operations in Europe. Hit teams sent by Tehran to assassinate opponents of the regime regularly coordinate their activities with the Iranian embassy in Bonn and through a series of Islamic cultural centers in other cities that German intelligence reports have identified as centers of Iranian terrorism.

THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT is operating freely in the United States under many guises. Through the foundation, its subsidiaries, and a variety of other front organizations operating on the orders of Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations and supervised by its Interests Section in Washington, the Islamic Republic keeps its finger on the pulse of American politics. Its representatives regularly attend congressional hearings and lobby congressional offices. Its propaganda outlets make the Islamic Republic the predominant source of news about Iran within the Iranian exile community, through a network that includes television and radio stations as well as dozens of publications.

Until now, the Clinton administration's trade embargo has barely made a dent in the Iranian government's activity in the U.S., although it is completely illegal for U.S. companies to sell even a pencil to Iran. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has already designated thirteen Iranian banks as Iranian-government controlled entities, which can no longer freely operate in the United States or with U.S. companies overseas. One of these, Bank Sepah, operated from the Alavi building. "Sepah" is the Persian word for "Army," but is commonly used to refer to the Revolutionary Guards Corps. (When Rafiq-doust was head of the Guards, he was also called the Minister of Sepah.)

U.S. officials acknowledge there may be constitutional problems in pursuing organizations such as Alavi that could be termed "religious." Closing the Islamic Centers could be seen as a generalized attack on American Muslims, while restricting the activities of a newspaper or television station because it has received funding from an Iranian-government organization could be construed as a violation of freedom of speech.

Still, there would seem to be enough maneuvering room in new counter-terrorism legislation to allow Treasury and other agencies to close down the Alavi Foundation and its very questionable Islamic education centers. The 1994 FBI report states that Iran has used Alavi to establish "covert sub-branches disguised as educational centers, mosques and other centers." But until the United States government makes a coordinated effort to close down Alavi, the hostile Islamic Republic will continue to maintain a strong presence right in the very heart of the Great Satan.

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE DECEMBER 1995 ISSUE OF THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR.

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Alavi Foundation